Early the next morning, we arrived bright and early to submit a formal petition. In it, we described our Prefect as a paragon of integrity and lawfulness, a man who cherished his people above all else. I used every laudatory term I could find to praise him as a model official.
That petition was the culmination of the collective wisdom of over twenty people; no one could read such a glowing tribute without offering a word of praise. As for Wan'er's stepmother, we depicted her as utterly depraved—not only had she abandoned all feminine virtue and engaged in orgies, but she had also committed the most inhumane act of selling her own two sons to fund her extravagant lifestyle and satisfy the whims of her band of young lovers. We painted her as a woman of irredeemable wickedness, guilty of every imaginable sin, leaving nothing out.
We even exaggerated the claims tenfold, filling every inch of a square meter of gold foil until the text was packed tight.
Chapter 113